Stepping up and scoring goals
Totten earns all-star nod in his first and last U18 major season
It didn’t take Tyler Totten long to show he belongs in the Nova Scotia U18 Major Hockey League.
In his only season with the Cole Harbour Wolfpack, Totten was a scoring threat from the get-go and was rewarded with his selection to the league’s second all-star team.
The 17-year-old forward from Valley, Colchester County, won the Nova Scotia U16 AAA league scoring championship last season with the Fundy Thunder. He headed down the highway this year to play at a higher level.
Totten was more than up to the challenge, scoring 24 goals and 52 points in 35 regular-season games to finish among the U18 league’s top three scorers.
“Tyler has been great,” said league MVP Jared Pitman, whose South Shore Mustangs are up against the Wolfpack in the quarter-finals.
“He has shown he should have played in the league last year. He’s a very skilled player.”
Totten’s contributions helped the Wolfpack — league leaders earlier this season — place third in the eight-team provincial circuit, just two points back of Dartmouth Steele Subaru and nine behind the pennant-winning Weeks U18 Majors.
Weeks veteran Lane Lochead won the league scoring title with 55 points, including 36 assists, in 34 games. Just three points back, Totten tied for second place with Halifax McDonald’s captain Bailey Shortall, who had 21 goals and 52 points in 34 games. Dartmouth’s Cole Chandler, the league’s rookie of the year, finished fourth with 51 points, including a leaguehigh 26 goals, in 31 games.
Cole Harbour veteran Goran Stobo, 10th in league scoring with 41 points, played on Totten’s line for most of the season.
“I like playing with Tyler and we work really well together,” said Stobo, an assistant captain in his third and final year with the Wolfpack.
“He is definitely a scorer. He can find ways to put the puck in the net all over the ice. His shot is really accurate, he’s a hard-working player, he’s pretty fast, he’s a good teammate on and off the ice, and he’s just a nice guy.”
Cole Harbour signed Totten last spring, fresh from his all-star season with Fundy. With the help of his family, he commuted to metro for games and practices, while still attending Cobequid Educational Centre in Truro.
“Honestly, I think the environment was really good for him,” Stobo said. “We were a strong team coming into the season and everyone played well. He must have put in a lot of work over the summer. Even before the season started, I got to see him a bit and he looked really good and I was excited to play with him.”
Totten’s role with the Wolfpack became even greater after the mid-season departure of Coen Miller, who was the league’s top scorer when he left for the junior A South Shore Lumberjacks. Miller still finished tied for fifth with Weeks forward Ben Wallace, each with 50 points.
The Wolfpack’s offensive depth was tested even further late in the regular season as Stobo was sidelined with a separated left shoulder. He expected to miss the first two rounds of the playoffs, at least.
“Hopefully, they can do well in playoffs and I can heal quickly and get back,” said Stobo, who began physiotherapy a week before playoffs opened March 1.
Despite multiple coaching changes and player losses during the season, Cole Harbour managed to post a 23-11-1 record.
“We had a good team from the start,” Totten said. “There were a few patches where some things happened, but we’ve brought it together and pulled out some good wins.”
When the Wolfpack lost Miller in December, “I knew there would be a big role to fill, because he contributed a lot for us,” said the fivefoot-11, 170-pound Totten. “I just tried to step up as much as I could. It hurts (to lose a player of that calibre), but you’ve got to keep your head up and not get too down about it.”
Totten has appreciated playing alongside Stobo — the centre on their line for much of the year — and more recently Mitchell Wagner, who began this season with the junior A Yarmouth Mariners.
“We’ve been doing well,” Totten said. “Coming off of last year — where I had a pretty all right season — I just went into this year hoping to do the same thing. I had a lot of good players to play with, too, this year, so that helped. Just kind of did my thing.”
He finished his high school studies at CEC in January, so he’s had even more time for hockey pursuits in the second half. He sometimes stays in Sackville with his grandfather to cut the commute to Cole Harbour.
Along with his busy schedule of practices and games with the Wolfpack, Totten has practised with his hometown junior A team, the Truro Bearcats, once per week.
Next season, he hopes to play in the Maritime Hockey League or even the QMJHL.
“I’m not really too sure right now, because I’m not drafted anywhere,” he said. “But I’m hoping to get a tryout in the Q and see where it goes from there.”